Examining the beliefs of pre-service teachers in agricultural education toward the use of inquiry teaching : a grounded theory study

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[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] The purpose of this study was to describe the beliefs pre-service teachers in agricultural education hold about inquiry-based teaching. The two primary themes that emerged through the data analysis were the participants' general beliefs about science integration and inquiry in agricultural education and readiness for inquiry. Participants discussed their own perceived readiness as teachers of inquiry as well as their perceptions about the readiness of their future students. In general, participants described feeling unready to engage in teaching inquiry and believed some students could lack the readiness as well. These two sets of beliefs were related in some ways; beliefs related to participants' teacher readiness influenced their beliefs about student readiness. A substantive-level theory was developed that illustrates the relationships between the emergent themes. Recommendations related to practice in teacher education programs and future research related to beliefs were included.